


Reality Television

by velljob



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: M/M, Probably other characters too, Shenanigans, author hasn't seen The Crown, definitely some OCs, discord made me do it, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velljob/pseuds/velljob
Summary: Henry and Alex have to see their lives played out on The Crown. They hatch a plan to make the experience a lot more fun.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 31
Kudos: 185





	1. Chapter 1

It started, as most things did, with being roasted by their friends.

  
**BUG**  
It’s Crown time!

June no

 **Pezza**  
Got my popcorn ready!

 **irl chaos demon**  
Me too!

 **HRH Prince Dickhead**  
Why would you do this?

exactly

 **The Fun Royal**  
It’s good to see how it really happened

sdfnlkasjfbglk

 **HRH Prince Dickhead**  
Traitor!

  
It was Saturday night and people in the know were watching the recently released series of The Crown. People including Henry and Alex’s friends, who were enjoying the spectacle of their courtship and subsequent life being played out on television just a bit too much.

Alex snuggled into Henry’s side, rolling his eyes as the conversation in the group chat continued, discussing the intricacies of the show and cheering for the actor versions of themselves whenever they appeared on screen. 

“Should we see how wrong they have it this episode?” he asked, his voice soft and sleepy from Henry’s hand running through his curls. Although it felt weird to watch dramatised versions of themselves it had become a point of fascination for them to watch the show and see what the writers thought their relationship was like, especially their relationship prior to going public. It was like watching a train wreck, except the track was your love life and the trains were you and your boyfriend.

So far the show had assumed a far more innocent getting together than they had actually had. It started with Henry voicing his feelings for Alex on New Years Eve, which they both agreed was a bloody good guess. The last episode had seen them kiss for the first time at the State Dinner, which they had both got a good laugh out of. This episode seemed to be assuming that they had met up between that date and the polo match where they had next been photographed together.

“I wish,” Henry said, with a lopsided smile, as on-camera Alex kissed on-camera Henry at a secret meeting at Kensington Palace. “I don’t know why they think we were so chaste. They’ve read our emails.”

On screen Raphael Del Toro - who was playing Alex - pushed Aaron Campbell backwards into a wall, their kissing becoming heated.

“Oh,” Henry said, received pronunciation dripping from the syllable. Alex laughed, glancing up at his boyfriend to see he was blushing a bright pink colour. 

“Well, we knew they’d get around to it,” he snickered, turning his attention back to his phone, which was buzzing violently.

**BUG**  
Gross

 **irl chaos demon**  
My eyessss

the_office_how_the_turntables.gif

 **Pezza**  
get it boys

  
As the focus moved away from Del Toro and Campbell, heavily suggesting an off-camera sex scene, Henry chuckled. “Gran hates this show,” he divulged, watching as fake Martha and Philip had a conversation about when they were going to start trying to have a baby.

Alex sat up.

“You know what would really piss her off?” he said, lips twitching into a wide grin. 


	2. Chapter 2

_The scene begins at the back of a crowded bar, looking out over a stage. Standing in the spotlight is a woman, doing her best Dolly Parton impersonation as she sings the chorus of ‘Jolene’. All around the bar people join in with her, singing their hearts out, and no one pays that much attention to a group of young people as they enter and make their way to a secluded booth._

_“What are we drinking?” Pez asks._

_“What are we singing?” June squeals._

_The camera swings under the table, to where Henry is holding Alex’s hand, then up to their cheerful faces as the group bickers about song choices._

_Smash cut and Henry is on stage, singing Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. Alex is on his feet - as is the rest of the bar - and the look that passes between the two men is smoldering._

It had been a dark, wet day, and as night fell the rain only seemed to worsen, but nothing could dampen Alex’s mood. He grinned happily as he made his way to the dark SUV that was to be their transport for the evening, fiddling with his cufflinks and briefly checking his hair in the reflection of one of the darkened windows. Pulling open the door, he bowed, lifting one arm with a distinct flourish as he gestured to the car’s interior.

“Your Highnesses,” he said reverently. “Your carriage awaits.”

“Idiot,” Henry said fondly, climbing into the car whilst taking care not to crumple his smart blue suit.

“You love it, babe,” Alex told him, sliding into the middle seat beside his boyfriend. Leaning into him, he rested his head on Henry’s shoulder for a moment, gazing up at him lovingly. “Did I mention you look really hot?”

Henry chuckled, taking Alex’s hand and intertwining their fingers. “You did.”

Bea, who had been fiddling with her shoe just outside the car, climbed inside, rolling her eyes in a softly exasperated way at the tableau presented to her in the back seat. “Ready for this?” she asked, a wicked smile flashing across her face.

“I’m ready,” Henry said softly. “I only wish I was going to get to see Gran’s face when she finds out.”

Alex’s laugh was long and loud as their dark SUV pulled down the Kensington Palace driveway and into the London streets.

  
_The scene begins with a close-up of a hand lying on a crisp, white sheet. As the camera pulls out the scene becomes clear; two men lying in bed, asleep. Henry has his arm around Alex and as the latter stirs he grumbles, the ghost of a smile passing across his face. He nuzzles into the crook of Alex’s neck, earning him a giggle and shove under the covers. Alex rolls over and the pair begin to wrestle, laughing._

_When they tire Alex is on top, holding Henry’s hands over his head in a firm grip. He leans down to kiss him, ever so softly, and the answering sound of pleasure goads him on. He releases Henry’s hands and fists his hand in Henry’s hair. They roll, and Henry is on top._

_The camera pans away._

It was the UK television party of the season. 

At a rooftop bar in Peckham, high above the London streets, the cast and crew of The Crown were celebrating the slew of awards that Season Five had been nominated for and received, and Aaron Campbell was well on his way to getting quite drunk.

“Aaron, just the man I wanted to see!” said one of the show’s producers, taking him by the arm and dragging him away from the conversation he had been having. “The big bosses want to talk to you.”

“Me?”

“Apparently there’s some VIPs coming in and the Netflix bigwigs want you, Raphael and Emily to greet them.”

Aaron groaned. He had been having a nice evening and spending the rest of it with someone his bosses bosses were trying to impress didn’t sound like fun. He knew most VIPs were major Netflix investors and that they basically paid his salary, but it didn’t mean he wanted to talk to one.

Drawing up near the front door of the bar and finding himself beside Emily, the Princess Beatrice counterpart to his Prince Henry, he discreetly rolled his eyes. She giggled, slipping her arm into his.

Through the bar’s front door came a tall, impeccably dressed Indian man and an even taller white man that looked as though he bench-pressed cars for fun. Both surveyed the room, as if looking for problems, before the Indian man stepped back out the door, holding it open for someone outside.

Aaron stared. Blinked. Stared some more.

“Is that-” Emily managed before lapsing back into silence.

“Hello, Aaron, isn’t it?” His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales said genially, holding out his hand to shake. 

“Holy shit,” Aaron breathed, then blushed furiously. “I mean, uh, sorry, Your Highness. It’s Aaron, yeah.” He swallowed nervously, shaking the offered hand and trying to get a hold of himself. Around them the party had gone strangely quiet as everyone stared at the newcomers. 

“We heard y’all were having a party,” Alex Claremont-Diaz said warmly, a mischievous sparkle in his eye. “We thought we’d come say hi.”

_The scene begins with a close-up of Alex’s panicked face and breaks into a split-screen, showing Henry in the lower half. They’re on the phone._

_“Henry?”_

_“Alex! My darling, are you alright?”_

_“Yeah, I’m fine, are you okay?”_

_A pause. The Henry on the screen looks stricken. “I’ve been better.”_

_Alex sniffs, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I’m so sorry this happened. I didn’t want it to come out like this.”_

_“I know, I know you didn’t,” Henry soothes. “It’s going to be alright.”_

_“How can it be alright? They know everything, Henry.”_

_“Listen, it doesn’t matter. The emails … the public … none of it matters because I love you.”_

_“I … I love you too.”_

  
Sometime later, once awkward small talk had been exchanged and the special guests had done the rounds talking to all the important people at the party, Aaron found himself sitting on a couch between Henry and Bea (both of whom had demanded he call them by their first names), listening as Emily animatedly described the make-up and wigs she had to wear to truly become a Princess Beatrice lookalike. Across the room he could see Raphael and a couple of other actors laughing at something Alex had said. It was like the trio had always been a part of the crew, which was pretty amazing all things considered.

Glancing at Henry as the prince took a sip of his gin and tonic, Aaron took a deep breath. Suddenly, he knew what he wanted to say.

“It, uh, it meant a lot, when you came out,” he said. Henry turned to look at him, his piercing blue eyes alighting on Aaron’s face as he smiled softly. Aaron swallowed.

“I was still at school,” he continued nervously, staring somewhere over Henry’s right shoulder. “I was miserable. I wasn’t really bullied - not more than any other kid is - but I knew I was gay and I didn’t know who I could tell. My parents are, well, they’re old school, and I’d never met another gay person in the town I lived in. It felt like the biggest thing in the world … and then I saw in the paper that you had a boyfriend. Seeing you and Alex together made it possible for me to be myself because I knew if you could go through what you went through I would probably be okay too.”

Clearing his throat against the sudden lump that had formed there, Aaron risked a look at Henry’s face. The royal was staring at him with a shy and accepting expression that told him he wasn’t the first person to have unburdened himself in this way. 

“I just wanted to say thank you,” he added softly, mirroring the smile Henry was giving him. 

“You’re welcome. I’m glad that coming out made it easier for you. It’s always nice to hear that we helped.”

“Shaan says we have to go in a few minutes, so we’d better get this photo done,” Alex said, bounding over from the opposite side of the room. The tall Indian man who had entered with the group was following him, looking a little put out, and Aaron found himself wondering what the staff of the Royal Family were paid and whether it was enough when you had charges like these three.

“Up, up,” Alex said, nudging them all out of their seats and into a loose formation. The man, who Aaron assumed was probably Shaan, took Alex’s phone and lifted it up to the group.

“Smile for Instagram!” Alex said and the six of them cheered.

Aaron’s phone didn’t stop buzzing until well into the early hours of the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I refuse to believe no public record of Henry singing 'Don't Stop Me Now' made it out of that bar, so The Crown definitely knows and used it in the show. Also I don't know how sexy they get on The Crown so have a slightly sexy scene I guess.
> 
> At the moment this is all I'm doing on this but I might add more later if the muse strikes.


End file.
